Posted on Mon, 19 Dec 2011

Meet Jack Wills, Now In HK!

Jack Wills, who? Don’t worry if you have not met him or heard about him. You definitely won’t miss him! I got invited to take a sneak peek at him or rather ‘it’ – as ‘Jack Wills’ is the brand name of a very successful chain of British fashion and homewear stores that are making their foray for the first time into Asia, in Hong Kong. SimplyFab was invited to take a sneak peek at their pre-opening in late November this year.

I found it hard to miss the two floors of bright pink and blue stripes looming up at me as I walked from around the corner of Times Square towards their first double storey flagship store in Leighton Centre, Causeway Bay. With a tagline like “Fabulously British” I was expecting to see slick Brit – a polished store, filled with goods that looked too precious to peep at the price tags at and posh accents to greet me at the door .. instead, I was rather surprised to walk into largely Cantonese-speaking local intern, an unfinished store… workmen drilling, painters touching up, paintings and fixtures being hung. Was it opened? Was it closed? Did I get to the wrong place? Note to self: A daring move to go bare – especially for a brand relatively unknown to Asia (announcing its launch of its first store in Asia) to unforgiving press appearing somewhat ‘un-preened’ in what must be one of the most status conscious, ‘it’s all-about-face’ countries in Asia.

Arriving about 5 minutes early, the rather frazzled PR girl at the door asked me to look around as I was early and I was left to wander around upstairs in the sprawling 6000 square foot duplex unawares that the event was going on downstairs and when I was finally found and rescued (rather annoyed) I was ushered downstairs to meet Brand Co-Founder Rob Shaw who honestly won me over with his relaxed, unassuming and friendly charm.

Over a well-laid out spread of British Tea and some of the most delicious cupcakes I have ever had (I Love Marzipan!) I was won over by his guts to glory story of two young Uni mates (himself and Peter Williams, the brand visionary) who met and bonded over a love for sports and enterprise and together built the brand from scratch in 1999, 12 years ago to what it is today, a growing ‘empire’ of 60 stores in the UK, 3 in Ireland, 11 in the US and as of 1 December, 2 in Hong Kong, Asia. It seems that together, the pair scraped GBP40,000 of savings and a handful of credit cards and opened their first store in a small sailing and fishing town called Salcombe in Devon. Their target market then were initially Uni students, 18 to 21 year olds, selling them not just wearable togs but a look that combined preppy with modernity and a certain contemporary style. Walking the talk and literally breathing the brand, the pair actually lived above their first store in bunk beds.

And perhaps that example of how they admirably started is how I now favourably view what I walked into at this event because … the ‘thing’ that differentiates the makings of a future global brand from the many ‘here today-gone tomorrow’ labels is exactly that spirit of engagement and daring and not being afraid to bare your soul, stripped or striped (pardon the pun). It was refreshing to meet an entrepreneur that is still heavily involved in the business, not afraid to show it raw and who plans to keep it’s essence and various initiatives and communications with its customers vital, interactive – ’live’, living and breathing which is what the brand plans to be in Hong Kong through many viral and store events, so says another charming Jack Wills Executive, Olly Finding, the brand’s Head of Marketing.

And why not? This is a brand that has 300,000 facebook fans, over 50,000 twitter followers and fans like Prince William, Mrs Kate, royal brother Prince Harry, Emma Watson and even the likes of Britney Spears (in her wearing undies and not shaven bald phase) who have also fallen for the bright, bold pink and blue and what I can only best describe as fabulously, attention-grabbing, quirky and epitomises the British sense of theatric humour and style. Their clothes and wares aren’t bad too. What we spotted below.